The Ravenous Bear & My Uncle

Lost two games of Chess earlier. My excuse (because I always have one) is I was distracted and blundered. I was 2-3 moves away from locking mate against someone rated +2000 when I misfired a piece in the wrong direction causing an avalanche of dominoes in a downward spiral towards defeat. It reminds me of when I was a young man (15 years younger than I am now) I use to play against my Uncle. Playing against him is what brought my game to the level it's at today. One day the board just took on a new dimension & I saw the 64 squares in their entirety. The Queen winked at me, the Knight neighed, the Bishop tipped his hat and it was all systems go from that point on. Well during one match I made a mistake and I said to my Uncle ,"Ah man I made a mistake. You win." My Uncle looked at me and said (I will never forget his words) "If nobody ever blundered, nobody would ever lose." Was an awesome revelation not only on the Chessboard but also in Life. Would be a gift & a curse of knowledge though because now all performances could be measured by the amount of mistakes you made. And any loses due to those mistakes could eat at your psyche like a ravenous bear at a christian summer camp picnic. So thanks Uncle for instilling the notion that you must be Perfect to Win! (at the highest levels sometimes you do....) It has given me a tyrannical view of gamesmanship that I use to this day. = r.i.p. Unc - u were the man...